First Game Jam Experiences
I completed my first jam recently (after a month or so) and I’d like to recount the experiences here. I learned quite a lot about development, problem solving, cooperative projects, and games generally.
First off, the game that I helped out with is called Salmantra on itch.io for a jam called FishFest. You wouldn’t guess, the jam’s primary theme was purely about fish! Asides from the primary focus being fish in some way, we were free to make whatever. That freedom was certainly refreshing.
At first we had lots of ideas bouncing around until we came down to two; those being a game about reverse-fishing or a reverse-mermaid. As funny as the idea of a reverse mermaid was, we settled on reverse fishing.
The player takes on the role of a fish looking to hook some humans, its a pretty goofy idea that we had fun with. That said, I had to do a lot of things for the first time in this project. Predictably, this lead to a lot of confusion, frustration, and growth that I couldn’t get in isolation.
The release version of the game has some problems, of course. Asides from glitches and bugs (that are to be expected from the very first version of anything) there were some non-implemented mechanics or assets. The title screen, certain sound effects, parts of music, and whole scripts were left unused due to how little time we had left to implement them.
The day after submission I listened to some critiques and reported problems and immediately got to work, and in that moment I felt what it truly meant to be a developer. I helped make something, and I wanted to make it presentable and enjoyable.
Now, lets contrast that with a different experience during a different jam. I won’t name it or the group members involved for anonymity reasons, but lets just say that our project didn’t even start properly. I don’t want to blame anyone, I really don’t, but I learned an important lesson about group projects that week.
Don’t phone anything in.
Which isn’t to say don’t improvise anything, I mean that organization and motivation are key. When one is sub-sufficient, the other dies.
The exact problem - at least in my reckoning - was a lack of both across the whole group. Clearly, every member wanted to make something! Of that I’m more than certain.
The progress I made on the game was essentially basic controls that wasn’t all that unique. I didn’t have a grasp on what people wanted, what ideas were being had, and what needed doing.
Regardless, I feel as though I should have to say one final thing before leaving off for the night.
If you participate in a jam and something comes up, tell your group. They need to know if they are going to be missing a team member so they can scope down their work.
Please, do not lead your members on.
